Siggy's Blurbs: Siggy's Edge of Country …

The captain of “Therapy Charters” quickly put his boat on the hitch to his truck and then started cleaning the fish.  I was amazed how quickly he cleaned the speckled trout and after he filleted them how little the fillets were.  He would throw the entrails in the air.  The swirling gulls by the cleaning station grabbed them right away.

I questioned him before and found out he was an electrician for eighteen years and has been running his charter for eight years.  Oddly enough his wife was a therapist working in schools and private practice.  She had several degrees.

He did use live shrimp for bait and there are times the bait is harder to get.  He had me pose in front of the almost twenty speckled trout.  I also took a picture of his truck which had the the name of his charter on the side.  This was his second trip today.  We were out in the sun over four hours and I felt “washed out” and he did this twice today.  It can’t be an easy job.  His face was deeply tanned.

Tags: "Therapy Charters", birds, boat hitch, charter fishing boat, cleaning fish, filleted fish, fish entrails, fishing, gulls, New Orleans, shrimp bait, speckled trout, vacation
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The last full day was the highlight of my trip.  My friend rented a charter boat to fish on Lake Pontchartrain.  Unexpectedly the boat ride to and back our fishing spot was just as exciting as the fishing.

We hung on for dear life as the wind and spray hit us.  It was exhilarating!  The captain said he was only traveling twenty-seven mile per hour but it seemed faster.  I was never in a boat that small.  The fishing was almost anticlimactic.

I lost track how many of speckled trout I caught.  As my friend said in his sardonic way–I caught ‘my world record’ for speckled trout.  The guide was good and patient with us.  He talked slowly with a southern drawl.  I also caught two sting rays, two small croakers and the only flounder.  It was fun although I did get tired standing up to fish.

I did not catch any sheephead.  The guide caught two and my friend one.  They were bigger than any of the other fish–four to six pounds.  My only disappointment there was no time to eat any of the speckled trout.  I was leaving the next day.

The guide and captain was good and if you are ever in the New Orleans area I would recommend this charter.  He called his charter “Therapy Charters”.  When I questioned him how he got his name, he simply said ‘fishing is therapy.’  If you ever want to look up his web site it is www.therapycharters.net.

Tags: 'fishing is therapy', "Therapy Charters", boat captain, charter fishing boat, croakers, fishing, flounder, Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, my old friend, New Orleans, sheephead fish, southern drawl, speckled trout, sting rays, vacation
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Absence makes your heart fonder.  I know that is a cliche but it is true.  I have been kept a little too busy on my vacation to miss my wife and menagerie particularly my dogs too much.  I have called my wife every day and made several quick calls.  My vacation to New Orleans has two days to go and then I fly back.  I see my lifelong friend once a year.  Once a year we reconnect.  After fifty years Chuck still makes me laugh and that is an accomplishment.  I had fun.  Saturday we go out on a charter as long as the weather behaves and I will probably catch the biggest fish of my life.  Chuck said some speckled trout weigh several pounds.  So I am excited about that.  My vacation here will end in a bang.

Tags: absence makes your heart fonder, charter boat, cliche, dogs, fishing, lifelong friend, my wife, New Orleans, pets, speckled trout, vacation
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I may have to think as a fish.  I am not a very good fisherman and it occurred to me if I want to do better I may have to view the water I am fishing from the point of view of the fish.  Is the water warm, cold or whatever.  Does the particular fish I am going for going to like the bait I am dangling before it.  I am not very good at this.  Maybe, it really does not matter.  All I want to do is be outside.  At least, have an excuse.  I no longer eat the fish I caught.  I simply want to throw them back.  So maybe all this discussion is futile.  I don’t care enough what the fish thinks.

Tags: do I really care about fishing?, fish bait, fisherman, fishing, thinking as a fish, throw fish back
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I stepped out and it was beautiful and I did not want to miss it.  There was not even a hint of a breeze and the sun was out and it was warm.  It was less than two weeks from the official beginning of winter.  Tomorrow was more of the same.  Then the temperature will drop and the weather would become more seasonable.  I wanted to catch part of the day outside.  Soon this gorgeous weather would just be a memory and I will have to bundle up every time I go outside.  Maybe I will go fishing tomorrow.  It will be more of the same temperatures.  And I want to take advantage of it.  Such weather was precious this time of year and the forecast for this winter was that it would be a cold one.  I don’t want this day to slip away.

Tags: autumn, beautiful day, bundle up, Fall, fishing, gorgeous weather, sun, weather, winter
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She came out of nowhere.  I asked my young nurse (during my brief hospital stay) where she was from:  she said, “Bricktown, New Jersey.”  I immediately asked her if that was near Lakewood.  And then asked her a flurry of questions.

She knew about Winwood Beach.  It was a vacation spot on the Manasquan River we often rented a bungalow for the weekend.  It could have been forty years the last time I was there.  I assumed the owner sold it a long time ago and the land was built on.  I was thrilled to find out it now was a park.

I used to love getting up in the morning to flush the cottontails.  There were the barn swallows who inhabited a garage there who would dive bomb every time I would go there near there.  I also picked wild blue berries in South Jersey every year.

Winwood Beach was the place where I used to throw rocks at the blackbirds perched at the barbed wire and once I hit one breaking his wing.  That was the last time I ever threw a rock at a bird.  The Beach was also not too far from The Atlantic Ocean.

She was familiar with Ocean County Park.  My Dad loved that park.  We lived two hours away but we often went there for the day.  My father upon entering that park would make sure the car windows were down so the smell of the virgin pines tree needles could drift in.

I also asked her about the park on the lake on route nine in Lakewood where we often went.  One memory I had of that place was my sister on a bamboo pole catching the largest yellow perch I had ever seen at the mouth of a stream there.

More of my childhood memories buried came back when I talked to this young nurse.  The conversation, unfortunately, was too brief.  I wanted to continue it but I did not have another opportunity. I owed my father a big debt for introducing me to nature by all our trips to South Jersey.

Tags: Atlantic ocean, barn swallows, birds, blackbirds, Bricktown NJ, cottontails, fish, fishing, Lakewood, Manasquan River, memories, my Dad, nature, nurse, Ocean County Park, South Jersey, vacation spot, virgin pine tree needles, wild blue berries, Winwood Beach, yellow perch
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I am no longer going to entertain the idea of frying up any trout I catch on my camp/fishing trip in May. I remember last year keeping a little bigger sized rainbow trout than normal to eat it for dinner later.

I had placed it on a stringer in the water. It started bleeding from the gills. I could not bear the thought of it dying that way. I released it and permitted it to swim away. This year I will let all the trout I catch back in the water immediately. My days of killing fish are now gone.

Tags: camp trip, fish, fishing, fishing trip, rainbow trout, released the trout, trout
Posted in death, knowledge&learning, life, nature, time | 2 Comments »

Spring was less than a hair away–less than three weeks. Perhaps by then all the snow will have melted. The snow seems as if it was on the ground forever. Though it was only February and now the bare spots are bigger.

In fact, the daffodils have already poked their their heads through the ground. I checked today. The primrose can’t be too far behind.

I know the temperatures will rise gradually. Before I know it, spring will arrive and all this cold weather will just be a memory.

In ten weeks I will take my annual camping trip with Chuck. Maybe even catch some more trout on the lake. Who knows?

Though, I am still bundling up–even in the house. I don’t like to be cold. Winter is still a reality but I am now anticipating spring already and the warmer weather. I know it will have arrived for good when I start wearing my tee shirts again.

Tags: camping trip, cold weather just a memory, daffodils, February, fishing, flowers, primrose, snow, spring, tee shirts, trout, warmer weather, winter
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A snow storm was coming.  The waitress said, “I don’t care, I don’t work tomorrow, let it snow.”

I overheard another say, that later the snow will be heavy–a few inches an hour.

The person I was sitting next to said, ‘Lancaster will get it worse.’

There were all kind of rumors floating about the oncoming storm.

I heard an fragment of a conversation regarding the policy of gays in the military, “If it is not broke don’t fix it.”  And then, ‘If someone comes out, they will be killed.’

All this while I was enjoying my bottomless cup of coffee.

On the way home I briefly stopped at the shore of the Susquehanna River, as I often do after I stop at the diner, quickly glanced at the River’s surface, which seemed pretty calm.  There was no indication a storm was set to arrive in a few hours.

I saw someone must have  launched a boat in the River.  A truck was parked there.  It must have been a die hard fisherman.  It was bitterly cold and the middle of winter.  I shrugged my shoulders.  I finally went home.

Tags: cold weather, cup of coffee, fisherman, fishing, fishing boat, gays in military, Lancaster, local diner, snowstorm, Susquehanna River, truck, waitress, winter
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Someone must be feeding it.  I can’t imagine it can catch fish in the almost completely frozen pond.  Every time I visit my friend I can see there.  The fishing must be awfully good or maybe it is really a statue.

And I am just too far away to determine that.  Or someone is feeding it.  I just marvel that it is always in the same pond and almost in the same exact spot every time I have passed there.  I only go on that road every few months but it is always there.  And now it is the middle of winter.

Tags: bird-watching, birds, blue heron, catch fish, fishing, frozen pond, my friend, nature, statue, winter
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Familiarity breeds discontent.  Sometimes paradise is in your own backyard.  For example I had no idea a large patch of raspberries lay in the furthermost right corner of my yard.  I discovered that accidentally when a surveyor came in because we had to know the exact boundary of our property.

I considered driving twenty minutes to go to a state park to go fishing.  I looked around and realized I only had to drive a few minutes to be at the shore of the River, which usually was deserted.  Paradise is always somewhere else.

I decided to stay put.  I plan on watching the sun go down on the mountains of the nearby Susquehanna River.  I simply will bring my Coleman lantern for light.  I may even build a fire to enjoy the darkness which will descend on the River.

I also considered camping there.  There is even a closer area for me to camp only mere minutes from me–Lake Heron.  Sometimes you have to take a closer look at your surroundings to determine you do not have to go far to find paradise.

Toads of all sizes keep appearing in front of our garage attracted by the night light.  You never know when a box turtle will turn up at our footsteps.  We discovered that another bird built a nest only steps away from our door.  Today I saw a bird alight on it but was not able to identify it for it flew away too quickly.

There is so much beauty in our own backyard.  I simply have to open my eyes to see what is actually in front of me.  I really do not have to go far to land in paradise.  It is here.  Right in front of me all along.  I just have to pay attention.

Tags: backyard, beauty, bird nest, bird-watching, birds, box turtle, camping, Coleman lantern, familiarity breeds discontent, fishing, God, Lake Heron, open my eyes, paradise is in your own backyard, pay attention, raspberries, see what is in front of me, state park, surveyor, Susquehanna River, toads
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I have fallen in love with Central Pennsylvania especially the county I live in–Perry County.  It is God’s country if you allow me to be that presumptuous.  There is open space here.  Farms, valleys and two major rivers, the Susquehanna and the Juniata, lay here.

The ride up the Juniata valley on Route 322 literally takes my breath away:  it is so beautiful.  Closer to home, every time I drive into town I want to capture its beauty on film of the view offered from the hill of the Susquehanna River and its valley crisscrossed by various small islands.

I live on the edge of country.  From my window I watch the birds come to and fro my feeders.  I was thrilled yesterday when I saw an indigo bunting alight on the ground.

We have had bears raid our bird feeders several times.  In fact, this state is second in the nation for bear hunting.  The smallmouth bass fishing from the two Rivers is superb.  I never forgot my first trips up the Rivers on a airboat.  It was like entering a world I had no idea even existed.

There is so much beauty here and people who have lived here all their lives do not always fully appreciate it.  I do.  I grew up near NYC where there were not too many open spaces.

We are less than an hour away from Hershey and Harrisburg, maybe three hours from NYC and Baltimore.  It is the best of two worlds.  I do not take this beauty here for granted.  The neighboring counties are running out of land to build on.

I would like Perry County to remain in an unspoiled state as much as possible for the next generation and subsequent ones.  Perry County is a treasure I would like others to experience.

Tags: airboat, Baltimore, bears, beauty, bird feeder, bird-feeders, bird-watching, birds, country, edge of country, farms, fishing, God, God's country, Harrisburg, Hershey, indigo bunting, islands, Juniata River, New York City, next generation, Pennsylvania, Perry County, smallmouth bass, Susquehanna River, treasure, valley, valleys
Posted in animals, balance, beauty, birds, God, knowledge&learning, life, local, love, nature, seasons, time | No Comments »